1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk storage case suitable to store and preserve a disk-like information recording medium such as CD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, MO, MD DVD and the like, to a package of the disk storage cases plurally stacked and packaged, and to a production method of the package.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, when a disk such as a compact disk (CD) is stored, jewel case has been used, consisting of three parts of body, cover and tray. Recently, the case consist of a cover and a body and having nails on the body to hold the disk, which is of the simplified jewel case, or the case in which a plurality of disks put in an envelope made of nonwoven fabric or others are stored in a large plastic case, are being commercialized.
However, the conventional jewel case is composed of three parts and a weigh comes to 65 to 70 grams. Accordingly, it is inconvenient for handling because of its heavy weight when a plurality of disks are carried out, and production cost comes to high.
The intention to provide the case consisting of cover and body is to make them lighter weight and more compact size and a cost reduction due to making a thin jewel case. However, since it is composed of the cover and the body, the weight comes to approximately 45 grams, and furthermore, polystyrene is generally used for a material, and since it has a shaft and a shaft hole to correct the cover to the body, there is a problem that the case will easily be broken by falling impact or others.
In case of the envelopes of nonwoven fabric and a case for storing them, as it is insufficient to protect the disks only with the envelope of nonwoven fabric, a case is necessary to store them. Accordingly, for commercializing, a plastic case or paper box such as a case for ten disks or that for twenty disks has to be prepared depend upon the number of disks to be stored and many of cases or paper boxes are to be provided for production. When they are to be carried, unnecessary disks are also to be carried coincidentally since a unit to carry is to be a case. In addition, the envelope will not be transparency because of using the nonwoven fabric, and it will require time to find the necessary disk.
There are lots of forms to sell a plurality of recordable compact disks (products called as CD-R or CD-RW) together. In this case, if the jewel case or the case consisting of two parts, cover and body, is used, it will have a formation to additionally be wrapped together with the paper box or the film. However, in such case, the package size will come to large in proportion to the number of disks, and the weight will also come to much heavy.
Furthermore, when a plurality of storage cases are wrapped together with a film and subjected to heat shrinkage by hot air, it is difficult to heat up uniformly, and accordingly, the package is sometimes tilted due to lack of uniformity of film shrinkage.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a disk storage case in which a disk-like member such as compact disk may easily be stored, which may be lightweight and a plurality of the disk storage case may compactly be stackable and packaged easily.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a production method of a package and the package, which may easily be produced by stacking a plurality of disk storage cases in which the disk-like members such as compact disks are stored.
A disk storage case according to the present invention is composed of a circular setting portion for setting a disk-like member thereon, a disk holding portion for holding the disk-like member arranged vertically and annularly at a center part of the setting face of the setting portion, and a through hole provided at an interior of the annular holding portion. According to the disk storage case, the disk storage case which is a simplified and lightweight can be realized, a plurality of the disk storage cases in which the disk-like members such as the compact disks are stored, can be stacked compactly for packaging, and the packaging can easily be made without tilting by insertion of a cylindrical rod into the through hole and film packing.
In addition, a disk storage case according to claim 1, wherein a first fitting portion is provided at an exterior of the setting portion, a second fitting portion in which the first fitting portion is capable of being fitted, is provided at a back face of the setting face, and when a plurality of the disk storage cases are stacked, the first fitting portion is fitted in the second fitting portion of the adjacent disk storage case whereby the plurality of disk storage cases can be connected each other without fail when they are packaged. The first fitting portion may be arranged on the stepped portion formed at an exterior face of the setting face, and the second fitting portion may be arranged as a projection formed at the back face of the setting face. It is preferable to provide the setting portion slightly more than a diameter of the disk-like member.
By provision that a distance between the setting face and the back face of the setting face of the adjacent disk storage case is more than a thickness of the disk-like member, it makes a possibility to store the disk-like member in a space between the setting face and the back face of the setting face of the adjacent disk storage case. In this case, it is preferable to provide the projections on the setting face so as to prevent an entire face of the disk-like member from contacting the setting face.
By further provision of a grip portion extending from a circumference of the circular portion so that the disk storage case may be gripped, it will make an expedient to store and use the disk storage cases. The grip portion may be provided at the circumference of the setting portion partially or separately. By further provision of a hook portion formed by notching a part of the grip portion so that the disk storage cases may be hung, it will make an expedient to keep the disk storage cases.
It can be made easy to take out the disk-like member from the disk storage case by provision of an easy deformable portion in the setting portion so that a part of the setting face is easily deformed by pushing the back face with a finger.
A production method of a package according to the present invention, in which a plurality of disk storage cases are packaged, includes a step of providing a pedestal to which a rod-like member is fixed, a step of storing a disk-like member in a disk storage case mentioned above, a step of putting a plurality of disk storage cases stacked on the pedestal by inserting into the rod-like member, a step of winding a heat shrinkable film around the plurality of disk storage cases stacked, a step of heating up the heat shrinkable film wound around the plurality of disk storage cases, and a step of removing the plurality of disk storage cases inserted into the rod-like member and stacked, from the rod-like member fixed on the pedestal.
According to the production method, since a plurality of disk storage cases are stacked on the pedestal with inserting onto the rod-like member through the through hole, there is no case to make moving from the set up location. Due to this condition, it comes to make it easy to wind a heat shrinkable film around a circumference of a plurality of disk storage cases stacked, and furthermore, it can make no failure that the package is tilted even if a shrinkage is not uniformly made due to lack of uniformity of the supplied hot air when the heat shrinkage film is heated by the hot air. Accordingly, the package can effectively be produced, in which a plurality of disk storage cases are stacked and packaged.
When a plurality of the disk storage cases are to be stacked prior to the packaging, the plurality of cases may be put on the pedestal with inserting into the rod-like member after they are stacked, or, a plurality of disk storage cases may also be put on the pedestal to pile up with slipping onto a rod-like member one by one through a through hole.
It is preferable to be that a diameter of the pedestal is less than a maximum diameter of the disk storage case. Due to the above, a film may be wound around a circumference of the adjacent disk storage case without fail. In this case, a spacer member whose diameter is less than a maximum diameter of the disk storage case, can be arranged on the pedestal.
The package in which the plurality of disk storage cases are packaged according to the present invention is, by production method mentioned above, provided so that a plurality of the disk storage cases storing the disk-like members are packaged with the heat shrinkable film.
By this packaging, it may be realized to make a package in which the plurality of disk storage cases are stacked and packaged without tilting.
In this case, the disk-like member is not stored in the disk storage case put on top of the package, whereby it is not necessary in particular to provide a protection member for protecting the disk-like member stored in the top disk storage case, and it is profitable for cost, accordingly.
It is preferable to be that the disk-like member is an information recording medium, and it is more preferable to be of CD-R or CD-RW.